ARMA 10-172

Rethinking of Shale Swelling Based on Interesting Test Results

Hong (Max) Wang, Halliburton
Halliburton, Houston, Texas, USA

Copyright 2010 ARMA, American Rock Mechanics Association

th th
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 44 US Rock Mechanics Symposium and 5 U.S.-Canada Rock Mechanics Symposium, held in
Salt Lake City, UT June 2730, 2010.
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ABSTRACT: Shale is troublesome for drilling. This is true partially due to its swelling characteristics when interacting with
water. However, shale swelling is a complicated matter and how shale swells is still not crystal clear to many engineers who deal
with wellbore instability issues daily. A simplified shale model has been built with equilibrium between osmotic pressure and
normal stress acting on the clay platelets by ignoring insignificant factors under practical drilling conditions. This new model
reveals that there are two distinct water bodies in swelling shale. Changing stress on the platelets will change the water distribution
and their water activities in these two water bodies. This model can explain observed stress sensitive activity phenomena reported
on swelling shale. The model provides a quantitative way to predict water activities for shale and a new and important equation for
improving wellbore stability analysis. With the model many other phenomena such as time-dependent wellbore swelling or tight-
hole can be better understood.
unchanged at various stresses, possibly generating
INTRODUCTION misleading results and conclusions.
Some say that 90% of wellbore instability comes from Furthermore, it is obvious that knowing shale water
shale, which comprises about 70% of the formations activities is the prerequisite for designing a water
drilled. Many studies have been attempted to address activity balanced mud for swelling control. However, lab
wellbore instability in shale drilling. These studies tests normally cannot provide a good number easily. It
include shale composition in terms of mineralogy, grain would be of great value if a mathematical equation could
grading, anisotropy of density, petrophysical properties be used to predict the value with acceptable accuracy
such as permeability, porosity, mechanical properties under downhole conditions. Such an equation may also
such as shear modulus and Poissons ratio, chemical be of significance for correlating water activities and
properties such as linear swelling coefficients and pore interpreting shale behaviors for lab tests.
water activities, etc.
It is normal for rock to have its anisotropy. Would shale
Shale is different from other rock types at least partially show swelling anisotropy or swelling with different
due to the fact that it tends to be water sensitive and may magnitudes in different directions? Can or should
start to swell when contacting water or water-based wellbore instability analysis take this into account to
drilling fluids. To maintain wellbore stability, one can better reflect the reality?
see that shale water sensitivity is of great importance for
engineers to understand. The major difference between To better understand shale swelling and improve our
shale and sandstone is that swelling shale contains ability to cope with swelling issues for drilling
swelling clays and clay swelling is more or less related engineering, a new shale model has been built to reflect
to water activities. the essentials of this special rock for wellbore stability.
This paper begins with the introduction of the model and
Lab tests on shale have indicated that water activities of the development of its underlined mathematical
some shales are sensitive to confining stress. However, equations. Then the model is used to explain those
similar tests on sandstone show no such sensitivity. This special phenomena observed from lab tests, followed by
intriguing phenomenon has not been well explained and discussions on shale tests, wellbore stability analysis,
further understanding on shale internal structures is etc. related to shale swelling.
needed. Many studies have been focused on shale
interactions with its surrounding fluids such as mud by
treating shale as a uniform subject with a water activity
WHAT IS SWELLING SHALE? concentrations of cations trapped by the negative
charges on the clay platelet surfaces, the platelet water
According to Wikipedia, shale is a fine-grained, clastic activity, aw,platelet, normally is low. Figure 2 is a model of
sedimentary rock composed of flakes of clay minerals
clay platelets in shale.
and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz
and calcite. aw,platelet
The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
characterized by thin laminae or parallel layering or
bedding less than one centimeter in thickness. The Figure 2. Shale Swelling Clay Platelet Model
swelling characteristics come from its composition of
swelling clays, the majority of which is smectite. 3. A Pore-Platelet Unit (PPU)
Montmorillonite, a member of the smectite family, is a These two water bodies should be connected to each
2:1 clay, meaning that it has 2 tetrahedral sheets other inside a piece of shale in subterranean formations.
sandwiching a central octahedral sheet. The particles are Figure 3 is a model of a shale pore connecting to a
plate-shaped with an average diameter of approximately swelling clay platelet space. We can call it a pore-
one micrometre. The water content of montmorillonite is platelet unit or a PPU.
variable and it increases greatly in volume when it
aw,pore
absorbs water. Chemically it is hydrated sodium calcium H2O
-
aluminium magnesium silicate hydroxide + H2O
(Na,Ca)0.33(Al,Mg)2(Si4O10)(OH)2nH2O. Potassium, +
aw,platelet H2O H2O
+ H2O
H2O H2O
iron, and other cations are common substitutes, the exact + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + H2O po - - -
ratio of cations varies with source. It often occurs + H2O
H2O
-
-
intermixed with chlorite, muscovite, illite, cookeite and H2O H2O
+
H2O

kaolinite. H2O -

Figure 3. Model of a Pore-Platelet Unit

BUILDING A SWELLING SHALE MODEL
1. Pore space 4. Force acting on the platelets
It is easy to visualize that shale contains pores. These To understand shale swelling, we have to understand
pores contain water. Of course, this water is not pure and those expanding and contracting forces acting on the
it may contain some dissolved salts. Therefore, it should clay platelets in normal subterranean drilling conditions.
have salinity and a water activity associated with the In summary, these are basically the following:
salinity. Figure 1 is a model of shale pores. There is
1) Expanding force
pore pressure, Po. Its water activity is aw,pore.
a. crystalline hydration
aw,pore b. electrostatic repulsion
H2O
c. osmotic swelling (assuming platelet
- water activity is lower)
+ H2O 2) Contracting force
H2O + H2O H2O a. van de Waals attraction
+
H2O H2O b. normal stress
H2O po - - -
H2O
H2O - Crystalline hydration occurs when clay platelets absorb
- +
H2O
H2O the first 3 to 4 layers of water molecules on the platelet
H2O
+ surface and become hydrated. Studies show that
H2O - compaction pressures for dehydration for the last layer
and the second layer of water molecules are about
70,000 and 25,000 psi [1]. The smectite-illite transition
Figure 1. Shale Pore Model would become fast at a depth of about 10,000 ft, below
which the smectite content reduces rapidly with depth
2. Platelet space [2]. With such a depth, the effective stress at maximum
Between swelling clay platelets, there is a space of is only about 5000 psi.
water, in which there are various cations trapped by the
negative surface charges on the platelets. Due to high
For drilling environments, in shale, the first several
layers of water molecules always exist. Crystalline
hydration therefore is basically insignificant to drilling.
In shale, negatively charged clay platelet surfaces are
initially at least close to being neutralized by adsorbing
cations. When such a platelet is placed in fresh water,
water starts to flow in and expansion starts. When clay
platelet spaces expand to a certain distance, hydrated
cations will diffuse away. The platelet then becomes
electrostatically negative. Then electrostatic repulsion
appears. However, before this happens, the cations must
be hydrated with enough water molecules to become
diffusible.
As demonstrated in Figure 4, it seems that electrostatic
repulsion would only be significant when clay platelets
are fully hydrated, many cations diffuse away or much
platelet expansion has happened. A good example of this
may be a concentrated water-based clay mud. Under in-
situ subterranean conditions, clay platelets are not
allowed to expand enough to favor such cation diffusion.
For shale swelling regarding wellbore instability,
electrostatic repulsion between shale clay platelets seems
to be small.
Figure 4. Cation Diffusion from a Clay Platelet Space
Van de Waals attraction will reduce in strength with
distance substantially. For the condition regarding
drilling, this force seems to be relatively small, and we
can very likely ignore it without affecting our accuracy
for drilling engineering purposes.
Furthermore, forces generated from crystalline
hydration, electrostatic repulsion and van de Waals
attraction may offset one another somewhat and result in
an even smaller contribution to shale swelling.
Osmosis is defined as the diffusion of a solvent
(frequently water) through a semi-permeable membrane,
from a solution of lower solute concentration (higher
water potential) to the other solution with high solute
concentration (low water potential), up a solute
concentration differential.
For an example of an osmotic system with a CaCl2
solution and pure water in Figure 5, when a semi-
permeable membrane exists, due to the higher activity of
water in the pure water side, water molecules tend to
move to the solution side. If no increase in volume on
the other side is allowed, pressure has to be applied to
balance this tendency caused by the water activity
differential. This pressure generated is the osmotic
pressure. However, if there is no such semi-permeable
membrane, ions will be moving freely as well as the
water molecules, so no osmotic pressure can be
generated.
In a clay platelet space, cations are associated with the
platelets by electrostatic adsorption. There may be a few
cations in the pores. However, these cations should have
reached equilibrium with those in the platelet spaces
under the subterranean conditions. Trapped cations in
the platelet spaces will not diffuse away until much
expansion has happened. Before cation diffusion, the
system has a similar function to a typical osmostic
system. Cations are kept in the platelet space and only
water molecules are free to move in and out. In other
words, the clay platelets provide a cation trapping
mechanism, which serves a function similar to a semi-
permeable membrane in a regular osmotic system. This
means that in this mid-range of clay swelling process in
shale, a semi-permeable membrane is not necessary for
osmosis.
Ca
++
-
Cl
H2O
H2O
Figure 5. An Osmotic System
Due to the enrichment of cations by the heavily
negatively charged platelet surface, the water activity in
this platelet space can be much lower than the water
activity inside a pore. Due to this water activity
differential in this osmotic system, water in the pore
tends to flow to the platelet space. When this happens,
the platelet space will expand.
Shale contains very fine particles. Clay is part of the
supporting grains of shale. In other words, stress acting
on a piece of shale should also be transmitted to clay
platelets in shale. The normal stress acting on clay
platelets then act against their expansion.
So in summary for drilling applications, crystalline
hydration, van de Waals attraction and electrostatic
repulsion are very likely not significant for wellbore
stability analysis. At equilibrium, shale swelling can be
simply depicted with a balance between osmotic
pressure and normal stress acting on the platelets. This
stress-pressure equilibrium can be represented in Figure
6 and it can be mathematically defined for lab result
correction and wellbore stability studies.
5. A new equation to define shale swelling for drilling
aw,pore
aw,platelet n H2O + H2O
H2O
H2O po
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
n
H2O
- +
H2O
Figure 6. A PPU in Pressure-Stress Equilibrium
As shown in Figure 6, lets assume the pressure in the
pore is Po. Due to the water activity differential, an
osmotic pressure exists and it makes the pressure inside
platelet space as PI. Then the osmotic pressure
differential P = PI Po = RT/(VMwln(aw,platelet/aw,pore)).
Here R is the gas constant and T is temperature and VMw
is water molar volume. aw,platelet and aw,pore are the water
activities for platelet fluid and pore fluid respectively.
On the platelet side, in equilibrium, we should have a
normal stress, n, acting on a clay platelet and n = PI, or
n Po = PI Po = P. Then we have n Po =
RT/(VMwln(aw,platelet/aw,pore)). n Po = n is the same as
the effective stress in the same direction at the grain-
grain contacts in the poro-elastic rock mechanics
concept. Then we can have the following:
aw,platelet = aw,poreexp(VMw/(RT)* n).
This equation mathematically describes the relationship
between water activities and stress for the PPU model.
This should apply for swelling shale under a majority of
drilling conditions based on the above analysis.
The above indicates that there are two different water
bodies in swelling shale. Therefore, using a single shale
water activity to study or describe shale swelling
properties is at best not complete. There should be
platelet water and pore water activity, respectively.
These two water activities should be different and in
equilibrium with the normal stress acting on the platelet
under general subterranean conditions.
Shale may be comprised of much swelling clay. So a
piece of shale can be viewed as a collection of many
PPUs. This can be depicted as in Figure 7. Inside a
piece of shale, there should be PPUs in various
directions including horizontal, vertical and other
random directions according to a random deposition
environment.
H2O
-
+ H2O
+
H2O
H2O
- -
-
H2O
-
Figure 7. Shale Model with many PPUs
H2O
H2O
+
H2O -
It is probably a good assumption for modeling that these
pores from different PPUs in a piece of swelling shale
are connected since any unconnected pore should not
contribute to swelling. Due to the lack of semi-
permeable membranes between pores, they should all
have the same pressure and water activity.
A piece of shale in a formation sustains three principal
stresses. Due to the orientation of the platelets, the stress
on various platelets should be different. For a piece of
subterranean swelling shale, it carries a vertical principal
stress, v, and two horizontal principal stresses, H and
h.
For PPUs lying horizontally, the platelets sustain the
vertical stress. For PPUs lying vertically, the platelets
sustain the horizontal stresses. For those not lying in
these principal stress directions, the magnitudes of
normal stress acting on the platelets can be determined
with those principal stresses.
(1) If we assume all PPUs are the same in platelet size,
charge density, etc., it is easy to understand that the
platelet spaces in different orientations should be
different and reflecting the magnitudes of their normal
stress on the platelets.
For a PPU sustaining the vertical principal stress, its
water activity is as follows:
(aw,platelet)v = aw,poreexp(VMw/(RT)* (v - Po)).
For one sustaining the minimum horizontal principal
stress, its water activity is as follows:
(aw,platelet)h = aw,poreexp(VMw/(RT)* (h - Po)).
For one sustaining the maximum horizontal principal
stress, its water activity is as follows:
(aw,platelet)H = aw,poreexp(VMw/(RT)* (H - Po)).
It is clear that platelet water activities in different
platelets should be different, however, for engineering
purposes without knowing the details, some may like to
treat it as a whole by averaging swelling potentials and,
with this approach, we can have an average platelet
water activity for a piece of shale as follows:
(aw,platelet)ave = aw,poreexp(VMw/(RT)* ((v + H + h)/3 - Po)).
Rojas et al [3] have shown an equation for calculating
shale water activities based on principal stresses with a
correction factor aw,c. The equation is as follows:
aw,shale = aw,cexp(VMw/(RT)* ((v + H + h)/3 - Po)).
By comparing Equations 5 and 6, one finds that their
shale water activity aw,shale is very likely an average aw
for shale clay platelets. The correction factor aw,c now
has a physical meaning: shale pore water activity.
Equations 2~5 show that a meaningful average water
activity for shale clay platelets can be defined by
knowing shale pore water activities and its stress
environment. The obtained result is probably accurate
enough for drilling engineering purposes.
These equations imply that, at zero effective stress, the
pore water activity is the same as that of the platelet
water. This data point correlates with a condition for a
shale sample at ambient pressure and with no confining
stress applied. This may deviate from reality somewhat
since the model omits effects from tensile strength.
However, due to the fact that tensile strength will not
come into play before confining stresses have been
overcome, tensile strength should not be an important
factor. Furthermore, sedimentary rocks normally do not
have a large tensile strength, so the error probably is
tolerable in many cases for an engineering purpose. If
more accuracy is needed, with this equation and tensile
strength, it is still possible to define the pore water
activity at zero effective stress.
6. Proof
Experiments were done with shale samples at room
temperature and atmosphere pore pressure but increased
confining stresses [4]. This test system allowed the pore
(2)
fluid exposed to the normal ambient pressure. With
higher confining stresses, water was squeezed out of test
samples and its activity was measured. From the tests, it
was summarized that, out of the four different shale
(3) samples, the fluid squeezed out of the system was more
diluted or its water activity increased with confining
stress. A list of experiment results on a Speeton shale
sample is shown in Table 1. However, this trend was not
(4) observed on all the sandstone sample tests with the same
test protocol. The water activity of the fluid squeezed out
of the sandstone samples remained constant regardless
how much confining stress was applied clearly due to its
lack of swelling clays or PPUs.
Table 1. Discharged Pore Fluid Water Activities at
Various Confining Stresses [4]
Speeton shale
(5) T, degF c, psi aw
75 0 0.811
75 1000 0.834
75 2000 0.860
75 3000 0.888
75 4000 0.914
(6)
However, it has been well observed that, in general, in
subterranean formations, shale water activity goes up
with buried depth. A correlation has even been built to
relate shale water activities with overburden stress [5].
This experiment result seems to be in conflict with the
correlation. However, with this new shale model, it is
very simple to explain this phenomenon and resolve the
conflict. When higher stress is applied, more fluid would
be squeezed from platelet spaces into pores. Due to the
platelet charge-trapping mechanism, only water
molecules move from the platelet to the pore and this
causes the dilution of the pore water or the increase of its
water activity. In the experiment, the measured water
activity is for the pore water rather than the platelet
water. At the same time, the chemical potential
differential across a PPU is increasing, and it generates a
higher osmotic pressure that then achieves equilibrium
with the higher stress.
The model also shows that in the subterranean condition,
during deposition, the platelet stress should be getting
higher and this decreases the platelet water activity. The
correlation [5] attempted to calculate shale water
activities is actually about the shale platelet water
activity.
From Table 1, based on Equation 5, the platelet water
activities at different stress levels can be calculated by
assuming only NaCl was present in the solution as an
example. The results are shown in Figure 8.
Shale Water Activities vs. Confining Stress
1
0.9
Water Activity
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Confining Stress, psi
Pore fluid water activity Platelet fluid water activity
Figure 8. Measured and Calculated Water Activities
In Figure 8, the blue line indicates water activity values
measured during the experiment and the red line
indicates the platelet water activity values calculated
with Equation 5. Each pair of data indicates the pore
water activity and platelet water activity of the subject
shale sample under a different stress condition at
ambient temperature. The trend of the two lines clearly
indicates that with increased confining stress, the pore
water activity increases while the platelet water activity
decreases. The new shale model explains the experiment
observation very well.
Sandstone normally does not contain swelling clays. It
lacks this stress sensitive water activity mechanism
provided by PPUs, and its water activity therefore will
not change with stress. Some sandstone may contain a
little swelling clay. However, due to the huge particle
size difference between a clay particle and a sandstone
grain, the sandstone grains basically support the total
effective stress acting on the rock. As long as this is true,
clay contained in sandstone is basically under zero
effective stress conditions at all time. When the stress
does not act on the clay platelets, the sandstone pore
water activity should not have any sensitivity to stress at
all.
DISCUSSIONS
1. Internal swelling and external swelling
With the above analysis, it can be seen that there may be
two different types of shale swelling. The first one is
swelling without a supply of water to the shale body. In
this case, due to the stress reduction, platelet spaces may
expand and pores may contract. Due to the lack of
supply of water to the system, water in pores and platelet
spaces may just redistribute in the shale and the pore and
platelet fluid water activity then change accordingly. In
this swelling process, the entire shale volume may not
change much; however, there should be localized
swelling where stress has been reduced. We can call this
internal swelling. A real example of internal swelling is
what water-wet shale cuttings may undergo while being
transported uphole in a pure non-aqueous fluid drilling
environment.
The second one is swelling with a supply of water to the
shale body. With a supply of water, when stress
reduction happens, platelet spaces expand and pore
water flows into platelet spaces, and water from outside
the system flows into the pores. During this process, due
to the external supply of water, the shale body can have
a substantial amount of swelling. We can call this
5000 external swelling. A real example of external swelling is
what water-wet shale cuttings may undergo while being
transported uphole in an aqueous fluid environment.
2. Shale cuttings expansion and dispersion in an aqueous
drilling environment
During drilling, cuttings contact mud along their way
uphole. The confining stress around cuttings is
decreasing during this process and this generates a water
flowing tendency from pores to platelet spaces. If the
mud is water-based, water molecules can flow into the
pores and provide a supply of water. If this supply can
be cut off or delayed, cuttings swelling and dispersion
can be mitigated. Increasing water phase viscosity or
providing superfine pore plugging particles to stop or
slow down the water supply then should provide control
on cuttings dispersion.
3. Wellbore swelling
When a borehole is created, stress is redistributed around
the wellbore. Even when no wellbore fluid is allowed to
flow into the wellbore formation, internal swelling will
occur if a water supply from the far-field formation to
the near wellbore area is allowed for water
redistribution. So it is still possible to see tight-hole
phenomena for drilling swelling shale with non-aqueous
fluids when much stress in the radial direction is
released at the near wellbore area. Due to the low
permeability, it would take some time for water from the
far field to flow to the near wellbore region causing the
swelling. Therefore, it would be a time-dependent
phenomenon.
4. Lab measurement for shale water activity
We need to know the formation shale water activity to
design water phase salinity for a non-aqueous fluid. We
may have to cut a sealed core to measure its water
activity. However, if the shale water activity is a
function of stress, we may have to restore the stress after
measurement to know exactly what it is. Many previous
lab tests that consider one water activity for shale may
need to be revisited to help ensure that the conclusions
are still sound.
5. Changing of SBM water activity during drilling
During a drilling process, in general, in a non-aqueous
drilling fluid there is a non-continuous water phase.
Though water in synthetic-based mud would not flow
directly into the tiny shale pores, it can pass through a
semi-permeable membrane formed by surfactants by
means of osmosis. In this case, the cuttings swelling is
actually external swelling. Though perhaps slowed
down, water still can get into the shale cuttings to
provide a supply of water for swelling. Due to the flow
of water from mud to cuttings in this manner, it should
be anticipated that the water phase salinity tends to get
higher with on-going drilling progress.
SUMMARY
1. A collection of many Pore-Platelet Units (PPUs) is
used to build a simplified shale model for understanding
shale swelling for drilling engineering purposes.
2. The new shale model defines two distinct water
bodies platelet water and pore water within a piece of
swelling shale, related to which are two water activities.
What has been frequently referred to as shale water
activity is actually the platelet water activity.
3. Lower water activity in a platelet space is maintained
by a higher concentration of cations trapped by the
negatively charged platelet surface. Due to this
mechanism, a semi-permeable membrane is not
necessary for osmosis within a PPU.
4. Though there are several interactions that may affect
swelling of a platelet space, for drilling purposes, it
seems that osmotic swelling is much more significant
than others and decent accuracy may be achieved while
ignoring those other interactions. This osmosis is within
a PPU and differs from what has been referred to as
osmosis between a piece of shale and its surrounded
fluid.
5. A stress-pressure equilibrium equation is constructed
mathematically, and it can be useful for predicting shale
platelet water activities and correlating platelet and pore
water activities under different test conditions.
6. Drilling fluids basically interact with shale pore fluids
directly to affect shale swelling indirectly. There are
both internal swelling and external swelling depending
on whether the subject shale body will be able to access
a supply of water during swelling. A wellbore may swell
in the radial direction causing tight hole conditions
without a supply of water from drilling fluids; it would
show time-dependency due to the low permeability of
shale.
7. The new and simple shale model can explain those
stress sensitive activity phenomena observed during
shale tests and therefore is supported by these results.
8. The model and equation may be used to better
simulate wellbore instability for drilling design.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author thanks Halliburton management for
permitting the publication of the paper. The author also
would like to thank those researchers working on shale
for his learning, without which it would be impossible to
have written this paper.
NOMENCLATURE
(aw,platelet)H Water Activity for Platelets on Which the
Maximum Horizontal Stress is Acting
(aw,platelet)h Water Activity for Platelets on Which the
Minimum Horizontal Stress is Acting
(aw,platelet)v Water Activity for Platelets on Which the
Vertical Stress is Acting
aw,c Correction Factor for Shale Water Activity
Calculation
aw,platelet Platelet Water Activity
aw,pore Pore Water Activity
aw,shale Shale Water Activity
degF Degree Fahrenheit
PI Pressure inside a Platelet Space
Po Pore Pressure
PPU Pore-Platelet Unit
psi Pound per Square Inch
R Gas Constant
SBM Synthetic Based Mud
T Temperature
VMw Water Molar Volume
P Pressure Differential
c Confining Stress
H Maximum Horizontal Stress
h Minimum Horizontal Stress
n Normal Stress
n Effective Normal Stress
v Vertical Stress
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